Houston Breakthrough, September 1980 - Page 2. September 1980. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. University of Houston Digital Library. Web. August 2, 2015. http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/feminist/item/6082/show/6060.

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Transcript

•Selective Enterprises
' Officers [left to right]:
5. Anne Cook
Sandra Hicks
Kate Sexton
Alethea Do Hi son
Announcing an opportunity for women to invest
in Houston REAL ESTATE.
Selective Enterprises, Inc. is buying and managing
income properties for investors.
Limited partnerships and joint ventures are available. Minimum investment is $1000.
#•>
Come join us and make your money work for
you.
Selective Enterprises, Inc.
• Investments
• Tax Shelter Advantages
• Property Management
1001 Oxford, Suite 100 Houston.TX 77008 862-7399
KEEP
JUDGE ROBERT BAUM
Judge Robert Baum has been a
long-time supporter of the ERA.
In 1978 his positions on issues
of importance to women earned
him the endorsement of the
Harris County Women's Political
Caucus. We, the undersigned
supporters of the ERA, know
that we need judges who are
truly qualified and who share
with us a belief in the basic
principle of equal justice for all
regardless of gender or party affiliation. Robert Baum's record
as judge is one that women and
men can be proud of. That is
why we urge you to keep
Robert Baum as judge of the
314th Family District Court.
Teresa Algaze
Sam Caldarera
Carol J. Carrier
James E Connor, Jr.
S. Anne Cook
Sarah J. Cooper
Evelyn Cox
Jacqueline Cronquist
Chapman Cronquist
Lorelei de la Reza
Dale A. Dossey
Gail Eldridge
Elaine Evans
Sylvia Garcia
Julie Gianelloni
Benegene Kring
Carol Higley Lane
Zoe Laurence
Karen Loper
Sharon E. Macha
Myrtle Jones McKinzie
Lea Markowitz
Ruth Milburn
Beatrice Mladenka-Fowler
Elizabeth Lilly Neale
Rose Rosenthal
Diane K. Shaw
Olga Soliz
Ruth Steinfeld
Doris A. Stewart
Charles Weems
Denise Weinberg
Nancy Wilson
Judy Wolff
Pol. adv. paid by Keep judge Baum Campaign
Charles R. (Bob) Dunn, Chair; Connie Baum, Treas.
7719 Bellaire Blvd.; Houston, TX 77036; Tel.: 774-1139
I read Gabrielle Cosgriff's "Media Matters"
column {Breakthrough, July/August) with
great interest - and considerable chagrin. We're
going over the research materials we used for
checking the piece out, as well as the correspondence we've received since the Hochberg
article appeared, to try to figure out what went
wrong and how we could have caught the errors she points out.
In the second paragraph of her column she
writes that "there are woeful inadequacies in
local environmental reporting," while observing that we flubbed our opportunity to deal
with this important subject...
We do very much want to get our Texas
stories straight...
JON SWAN
Senior Editor
Columbia Journalism Review
Sometimes I think that if a popular statement
in the extreme left faction of the feminist
movement were: "the sky is green," Breakthrough would support it as unthinkingly as
you expressed your opposition to the Hyde
Amendment in the editorial "Cruel and Unusual Punishment for Poor Women" (Breakthrough, July/August 1980).
If a poor woman's life is in danger due to
pregnancy, or would be if that pregnancy were
allowed to come to term, then she should have
access to subsidized abortion (for which the
Hyde Amendment allows). If she just does not
want a child, then let her use birth control. If
she finds contraception too inconvenient (as in
the case of the 16 year-old unwed mother who,
when asked in an interview if she were not a-
ware that a doctor could have prescribed any of
her choice of contraceptive devices, replied that
yes, she knew, but she would have had to take
the bus all the way downtown to her doctor's
office or as is the case of many women who
object that the time taken to insert a diaphragm
disrupts the flow of passionate lovemaking),
then let her abstain from fucking. As opposed
to the purely instinctive act that it is for rabbits, sex for human beings does and should include some cognitive responsibility. Conception
is the possible natural outcome of intercourse
roughly 33 1/3 per cent of the time. It should
not be the responsibility of the government to
protect citizens from the natural but unwanted
consequences of a willingly undertaken act because the agent of this act has failed to regard,
or was ignorant of, its result. ..
I support the ERA and the right ot choice
regarding abortion for American women. But
to paraphrase a statement made by one of the
justices after the ruling on the Hyde Amendment, the guarantee of the right to choose
abortion is an entirely different matter from
the economic guarantee that it be made available to all American women. Let us rather direct those tax funds to the immediate and required use of better sex education for both
juveniles and adults, thereby returning to
American individuals their rightful human responsibility for their own choices and actions
and the self-respect and dignity which accompanies assumption of this responsibility. A-
voiding pregnancy is a responsibility which absolutely precedes the question of what to do
about an unwanted one. Let us finally put our
attention there, where it belongs...
I would suggest that your editors take a
little more time to examine those gray areas
that lie between the black and white sides of
every issue, feminist ones included. It would
improve your credibility and expand your
readership to those whom you could really
hope to influence, beyond that pool of yea-
saying readers who already agree and know in
advance that they will agree with everything
you say.
QUEALY LEWIS
interesting and touching. I enjoyed reading
accounts of his life and accomplishments
through the eyes of people that had been associated with him in different ways.
Highlighting an artist who has contributed
so much to our community and to the area of
filmmaking is most appropriate for a newspaper
offering alternative news.
BETSY BALDWIN
Janice Blue's piece in the July/August issue of
Breakthrough ("Blue Period - a marriage, a
divorce, a renewed friendship and death") comes
very close to me and I thank and commend her
on that. Her "sorting" is sensitive and helpful.
I count James Blue as one of the real "teachers" I've had in my lifetime. As a teacher and
filmmaker myself, I wrangled with James and
found myself clinging to my all-too-tenacious
and provinical world views. James left no premise unexamined, no hypothesis untested, no
conclusion unsupported. In describing him to
others, I found myself telling them that he was
someone who would never take the easy course.
I don't believe he ever did an easy piece of
work with cleanly packaged conclusions. The
integrity of each and every inquiry, combined
with James' unceasing curiosity made learning
the sort of hard work that you feel good after.
In addition to all that I learned from James
and his work, I learned a quality of approach
that is much akin to the Greek concept of arete;
I learned courage, rigor, and integrity. I owe a
great debt to the future...
BOB DEVINE
Antioch College
Yellow Springs, OH
Thank you to Janice Blue for sharing her relationship with James Blue. The balanced tone
of her article was a most appropriate tribute to
one so humanistic...
OUIDADEAN
Nacogdoches
The current issue of Breakthrough is one ot your
finest! Of course, I enjoyed the cover story on
Dick Murray ("The Wizard of Odds"), having
had his prognostications during my campaign.
Janice Blue's story about her life with James
Blue was inspiring and heartwarming. The other
stories were also a tribute to him. ("A Farewell"
by Gerald O'Grady and "Houston Legacy" an
interview with Ed Hugetz by Missy Hauge.)
James had met with me and three others
during the campaign and showed us a four or
five hour program of film, including Fourth
Ward and The Invisible City. It was a rare opportunity and gave me many insights. His loss
not only affects our community but he will be
missed by all who have come in contact with
him and his work.
ELEANOR TINSLEY
Council Member at Large
I thought your series of articles on James Blue
(Breakthrough July/August 1980) to be very
Janice Blue responds: Writing my story on
James Blue took me through 12 years of our
relationship and hundreds of pages before I
woke up one morning and typed my final draft.
The process was both painful and joyful and
helped me reach an inner peace. I am grateful
for Breakthrough and especially to my colleague
and dear friend, Gabrielle Cosgriff, whose sensitive editing polished my words and thoughts.
And thank you, too, to Morris Edelson for his
encouragement to begin this task and to Jim
Asker and Chandler Davidson for reading the
final draft before its publication.
Sharing something so personal was a risky
undertaking. But your letters - well over a hundred of them - touched me deeply. Thank you
for your beautiful tributes to James. I shared
many of them with his parents and mine.
HOUSTON BREAKTHROUGH